Caster



W $950 A. M. BUDNICK ETAL CASTER Filed July 6. 1948 [NI 121N055 7 Abraham MBud/uc'k Nels QBerg ATTORNEY Patented May 2, 1950 CASTER Abraham M. Budnick and Nels 0. Berg, Seattle, Wash.

Application J nly 6, 1948, Serial No. 37,204

1 Claim. (CL 16-45) This invention relates to casters and particularly to casters for supporting and moving carts, tables and various articles of furniture in straight lines.

In the use of ordinary casters for such purposes it is common to connect them to the bases or legs of such articles leaving the supporting wheels free to swing or swivel circularly around the connecting point. With this construction the furniture or articles when pushed or pulled will not move in straight lines as the swinging of the wheels carries the articles in zig zag directions causing the article to collide or strike against other articles of furniture or walls of the rooms frequently marring and injuring the same.

Various attempts have been made to prevent such zig zag travel, particularly by brakes and forms of locks which require the operator to stoop or bend over to connect the latches, and repeat such movements to free the latches or shift the same when the articles are to be moved in another direction. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide in one complete assembly a caster unit which may be attached for use on the legs or bases of various articles of furniture to be moved and whereby such articles when pushed or pulled by the operator will automatically travel in straight lines in the direction desired by the operator.

A particular object is to provide a caster unit with all parts thereof connected together, and which may be applied to any of the articles desired to be moved in straight lines and which may be also adapted for lateral travel.

A further particular object is to provide a caster with a base plate provided with recesses on the lower face thereof and a ball resiliently supported beneath the plate for automatically seating in the recesses when the caster wheel is in alinement with the direction of travel desired for the furniture, the ball, however, being capable of being dislodged from the recesses by a slight push sidewise against the table, or articles to be moved, and without stooping or bending over to manually move or adjust the ball.

With these and other objects to be hereinafter stated we have illustratively exemplified our invention by the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure l is a vertical side elevation of the assembled caster with parts in section and parts broken away, together with the lower portion of a leg of any article to be moved. Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the base plate taken on detail edge view of the cylinde on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Like characters on the different figures represent like parts. Numeral 5 indicates a plate of suitable size for attachment to the bases of articles to be moved such as leg A for a cart or table, by means of screws through holes Ii or by a vertical pin 1 either singly or together. A spindle or bolt 8 preferably integral with the plate or aflixed thereto is extended vertically downward from the center thereof. On the spindle is rotatably mounted a tubular yoke or casing 9 having a pair of jaws Ill-ll laterally extending therefrom and afiixed thereto and preferably integral with the yoke. The outer ends of the jaws carry an axle H on which is rotatably mounted a wheel l2.

To facilitate swivelling movement of the yoke on the spindle suitable sets of balls indicated as I 3 and I4 disposed in ordinary races as It and I 4' are provided in the casing 9, at the top and bottom of a central core I 5. The upper balls bearing against the bottom of the plate and the lower balls and race supported on the bottom of the casing I6. An adjusting nut I'l threaded on the lower end of the bolt or spindle maintains the yoke in suitable relation with the plate for operation in various relations or positions heneath the object to be moved and for supporting such object or article in various positions.

In order to latch or connect the yoke and plate so that the wheels will carry the article in straight lines and to prevent zig zag movements of the article such as a cart, table and the like we have invented means for automatically latching the plate to the yoke when the jaws are extended with the'wheels in the line or direction of travel desired for the article. For this purpose a cylinder I8 is vertically attached or integrally formed on the rear portion of the casing opposite to the jaws and wheels. The cylinder is open at the top adjacent to the lower face of the plate and a ball I9 is freely disposed in such open top of the cylinder and normally'pressed upward against the plate as by a helical spring 20. The spring is preferably supported on a washer 2| pivotally connected on the top of an adjusting screw 22 for regulating the pressure of the spring against the ball from the bottom thereof and the pressure of the top of the ball against the plate. The screw is threaded through a web 23 in a sleeve 24 which latter is threaded at the flange 25 by threads 26 to the lower walls of a cylinder. The lower flanges 0f the sleeve and plate taken line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and Figure 3 is a fragmentary II provide a guard for the lower Portion of the v screw, which is provided with notch 21 for adjustments as by a screw driver.

The lower face of the plate near the outer edge thereof is provided with a pair of recesses as 28 and 29 in alinement with the orbit of the ball when moving around upon the spindle. These recesses are preferably formed oppositely from each other but in alinement with the cart or article to be moved longitudinally therewith. Thus when the wheels and jaws are in alinement with the direction of travel desired the ball will be in juxtaposition with one of the recesses, and will be compressed into such recesses with sufiicient force by the spring to prevent removal thereof by any normal lateral disposition of the article to be moved, and when such article is pushed or pulled longitudinally by the operator it will move in straight lines or longitudinally as desired. The pressure of the spring, however, is so adjusted that while it will normally maintain the ball in such recess yet the operator may readily dislodge the same by a relatively slight pressure on either side of the table, cart or other article to be moved whereupon the ball will roll freely on the lower face of the plate, and the article may be moved laterally as up against a wall as may be desired by the operator. It will be understood that by the use of the oppositely disposed recesses the caster wheels may be operated in straight lines either forwardly from or trailing behind the point or position of attachment of the plate to the said article to be moved. The edges of the recesses are preferably rounded to a curve to con form with the suriaee of the ball to facilitate pressions.

the entry and removal of the ball to or from the recesses.

Having described our invention we claim as new for patent:

A caster unit including a plate adapted to be secured to the extremity of a piece of furniture, a bolt integral with and depending from said plate, a cylinder carried by said bolt and adapted to rotate about said bolt, a yoke depending at approximately an angle of 45 from said cylinder and supporting a caster wheel, a second cylinder secured to said first mentioned cylinder, a spring pressed ball carried by said second cylinder and engaging the underside of said plate, said plate being formed with depressions diametrically on opposite sides of said bolt to receive said ball, means for varying the force with which said spring pressed ball is forced against the plate whereby the first cylinder may be rotated about the bolt to bring the spring pressed ball into either one of the alined de- ABRAHAM M. BUDNICK. NELS O. BERG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,827,595 MacGuire Oct. 13, 1921 2,051,627 Weinmann Aug. 18, 1936 23%,l7t Mulholland Dec. 22, 1942 

